Thursday, May 18, 2006

GEL 2006 - Dennis Diflorio

Dennis Diflorio represents Commerce Bank , which for those based in the NY Metropolitan area, perhaps provided a real alternative to their current bank. For those outside the market reach of Commerce, it was a good tease. Yes, they are doing some wonderful things. Hopefully, the competition will embrace these changes. (Although in one of the sessions, I do recall hearing that the competition picks up the mistakes and replicates those; the competition does not pick up the good stuff.)

Dennis "gets it". Creating customers is easy. Maintaining and sustaining the relationship he recognizes is the hard part. It really is all about service. Good service will keep them coming back. Bad service will enable them to leave at the first opportunity. He acknowledges that the funny thing about culture is that a business can not acquire it. It needs to build it from scratch. He believes that you need to provide focus and a sense of meaning to each of the bank personnel in order to succeed. He also believes that you need to bring your sense of humor to work.

Clearly, Dennis "gets it". It was good to hear that a good experience can be found in something as old and stodgy as the bank. Let's hope it spreads.